Page 28 of The Heart of the King

“He also said something like what you said, that I’m here in this time and place for a reason.”

Jasmine grinned at him. “I think I like your brother already.”

David smiled back at her. “I think you’d like him. I like him a lot better than I used to.”

With a laugh, she nodded. “I understand that. I’m not necessarily close to my siblings these days, but we’ve gone through phases where we like each other better than others.”

He reached up brushed her hair back off her face. “You were incredible today. Stewart said the initial public response to the new queen was generally positive. There were a few comments about the shoes, mostly good ones. Some of the old guard will feel like Mrs. Sneedly, but everyone else will love you.”

It might be a good idea. It might not. But David decided he didn’t care.

He kissed his wife.

10

Sleeping on an airplane, in a bed, was something Jazz had never done before, not even when they’d flown to New Sargasso a couple of days earlier.

And wasn’t doing very successfully at the moment.

The last two weeks had been a whirlwind, and this was really her first chance to just be still without her mind going a million miles an hour toward the nextthing, whatever that thing was.

She’d hoped things would slow down after the coronation, but instead they ramped up. Her first international engagement as a queen was the wedding of King Ezekiel of New Sargasso to his girlfriend, Nicolette. Even though his father was also still alive, Ezekiel had only been king a few months longer than David. King Geoffrey had stepped down for health reasons, not because he’d been convicted of crimes.

David probably needed to talk to someone about that. Did royalty have therapists? She probably needed to see someone, too. Her family still didn’t know about her relationship with Leo, not that they’d eloped. They’d wanted to do the big wedding with the family and friends and white dress, but - for reasons she’d never understood - they’d never approved of her relationship with him. Odd because they’d loved him when he dated her older sister.

Jazz wanted to toss and turn, but she was very aware of David’s soft snores on the other side of the bed. It was the first time they’d slept together since they woke up in Vegas. They hadn’t discussed it, and she didn’t know why he’d chosen to sleep in the other room when they reached the palace. She’d slept where she was told to - in what she now knew to be the smaller of the two bedrooms in the VIP suite. He’d slept in the larger.

They still hadn’t been moved to the monarch’s apartments, unless it happened while they were traveling, but she hadn’t been told what the hold up was. David had confided that he feared his mother had done damage before she’d been removed from the property when her plea bargain became official - her testimony against his father in exchange for pleading guilty to a much-reduced charge. His father’s sentence still hadn’t been handed down, not that it mattered much.

Since the coronation, he’d been busy with… something. Or more likely, lots of somethings as he tried to figure out what his reign was going to be about. She’d been watching several local news programs, just to get a feel for the country and its people and what was important to them. They seemed to be receptive of the planned initiative to move to absolute primogeniture. The polls said the public didn’t have a problem with her hair or nose ring - at least those under forty didn’t. Over forty was a much more mixed bag. One lady she’d seen interviewed - likely in her mid-60s - said she wished she’d had the guts to pull off the look when she was Jazz’s age.

Her own days had been filled with protocol officers, and Sarah fighting with Mrs. Sneedly on Jazz’s behalf. The amount of clothes in her closet increased daily, though Jazz hadn’t left the palace until it was time to fly literally halfway around the world, so she didn’t know why she needed that many clothes.

An arm slid around her waist as David’s solid mass appeared behind her. “Why can’t you sleep?” he murmured.

“Too much on my mind,” she replied. “Trying to absorb the fact that we flew a full day, when you included the stop in Alaska to refuel and are now flying nearly a full day back just to attend a wedding, even if it was a king’s wedding. Plus adding in that I just attended the wedding of a stinkin’ king and didn’t even get to sightsee while we were there.”

He pulled her closer to him. “We’ll go back sometime when we can do some sightseeing. I know it was a whirlwind trip, but my public relations team didn’t feel that it would be appropriate not to attend. It would be seen as a slight, and Ezekiel and I are about to negotiate a new treaty. The last few my father sent were utterly ridiculous. I need to be on their good side.”

“I understand all of that. I’m just overwhelmed by all of it, and trying to figure out what my role is in my new country.”

“Right now, your role is to get some sleep.” She felt him kiss her shoulder. “When we get home, it’ll be time to hit the ground running with Christmas festivities. It’ll be here before you know it. Gabe and Esme will be coming for a quick visit before New Year’s. They’ll only be in Auverignon for a couple of days, but we’ll see them for most of it. I’ll have meetings with Gabe because he’s my brother and with Esme because she’s the queen. You’ll have meetings with Gabe because you’re both consorts. You’ll have meetings with Esme because you’re sisters-in-law.”

“Sounds great.” She hoped in his still-half-asleep state, David wouldn’t notice that she sounded less than thrilled.

“Get some sleep.” He sounded like he was already drifting back off.

She closed her eyes again and tried to let the drone of the aircraft lull her to sleep, but it didn’t work as quickly as she’d like. At least they were in an actual bedroom on board, with a door and everything, and not in the cabin with the rest of their entourage.

Jazz now traveled with an entourage.

She finally felt herself starting to drift and forced real thoughts about real things to stay in the back of her mind and not push their way to the forefront where they would keep her up for who knows how much longer.

When she slept, she dreamed of David.

Of the kiss they’d shared on coronation evening.

Easily one of the best kisses of her life, but cut short by an interrupting assistant.

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